Ina Found Her Voice Across Three Languages. And Learned to Lean Into the Good Pain of Stuttering

Maya sits down with Ina Lalich, a San Francisco–raised, multilingual woman who stutters, for a conversation about language, identity, and learning to take up space. Ina describes growing up between Serbian/Croatian and English (with a later detour through French), and how her fluency shifted across languages over time -- sometimes finding relief in Belgrade, later feeling the opposite. She talks about the “different mind” each language gives her, and how writing her college essay on stuttering helped her claim it as strength: creativity, precision, and deep empathy.

Now a user researcher at Quizlet who records herself for work, Ina shares what it’s like to interview strangers daily, rewind the tapes, and still choose presence over perfection. We hear candid stories --from a CEO mistaking a block for a bad internet connection to educating someone who mimicked her speech -- and the simple rule that guides her: if she stays calm, others learn to, too. The episode explores womanhood and stuttering, resisting infantilization, the “good pain vs. injury pain” metaphor she borrows from gymnastics, and a curiosity about ASL as another doorway into voice and belonging.

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Big thanks to Proud Stutter's recurring supporters: Jennifer Bolen, Jerry Slaff, Josh Compton, Pablo Meza, Matt Didisheim, Alexandra Mosby, Ingo Helbig, Jonathan Reiss, Jason Smith, Paige McGill, Wayne Engebretson, Swathy Manavalan, and Martha Horrocks.

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